ProtoShares is a class of crypto-currency that let you capture a position in one or more new DACs before they are even implemented. The speculative value of a DACs ProtoShares is a subjective mix of three market perception pillars. These pillars are the market’s assessment of:

• The speculative value of a future DAC share.• The probability that the DAC can and will be successfully fielded.• Confidence that the ProtoShares map to an equitable share in the implementation.

AngelShares is a crowd funding operation that works to support the development of DACs. It functions like a mining pool where every day shares are mined and divided among contributors proportional to how much they contributed. Rather than hash-power based proof-of-work like Bitcoin based Digital Currencies, AGS uses money as a reusable PoW making it an efficient resource-light community operation that does not divert hash power used to secure Protoshares.

Like ProtoShares, they represent a way to gain a stake in the new crypto-equity industry. ProtoShares acknowledge a contribution to the launch of the new industry, representing a proof of work done in generating public interest. AngelShares acknowledge an equally important financial contribution to the industry infrastructure.

What is Bitshares

BitShares is the first Decentralized Autonomous Company (DAC) and represents a whole family of such DACs. The companies can vary from unmanned banks and exchanges to online gaming and gambling. It is in development and is intended to be a Decentralized Bank. see here http://invictus-innovations.com/bitshares2

The new clients have hard coded seed nodes and connect to the network almost instantly. The fix was a combined effort between bytemaster, toast Freetrade and myselft to provide users with a more enjoyable hassle free experience.

I would suggest an optimized miner since the difficulty of the network has reached a point where you are unlikely to ever solo-mine a block unless you happen to use the tian-he super computer.

What is an optimized Miner?

An optimized miner is a standalone miner that has greater performance, meaning it mines faster than the client. There are many in existence and you can see them here https://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?board=11.0 most however are locked to a specific pool.

Why must I withdraw my PTS to a PTS wallet?

There is risk in storing your PTS on an exchange so its best practice not to do this.

In addition you wont get any BitShares (or shares in any other DACs) if you keep your PTS on the exchange. This is because when Invictus launches a DAC it will reward PTS holders with shares in the new DAC by rewarding the addresses which contain the PTS. If your PTS is stored on an exchange, the exchange’s PTS address will receive your BitShares.

PTS wallet management

How do I safely store PTS on a PTS wallet/client?

You can download the client for MAC or Windows or download and compile the code from here www.protoshares.com.

Note: I prefer to use MAC as there are less security issues.

Run the client and allow it to sync with the network.

Before you send any PTS to your wallet, you first need to encrypt the wallet. You can do this by clicking on the ‘settings’ tab and then ‘encrypt wallet’.

It will ask you to type in a password (encryption key) twice. Use a password of at least 32 characters. It is best to not use any real words or patterns but a random string of letters (in lower case and capitals), numbers and characters such as [email protected]^&*

Important: Do not save your password on your computer or type it into any program. Your password should be written down on good old fashioned paper. You write the password down twice on two different pieces of paper for storage in different locations. DO NOT LOOSE THIS PASSWORD OR YOU WILL LOSE YOUR PTS.

How do I backup my PTS wallet?

You can create a backup of your wallet by clicking on the ‘file’ tab then ‘backup wallet’.

Just to be 100% sure also backup your wallet by making a copy of your wallet.dat file found in %AppData%/protoshares on Windows and ~/.protoshares on Linux.

Store your backups in multiple off-line, off-computer locations. You can store it on flash drives and cds which can be stored at different locations (such as home and work).

Once you have backed up your wallet. You can delete the wallet.dat file found in the .protoshares folder. This will remove your wallet from your computer making your wallet less vulnerable to hackers. Hackers may be able to get into your hard drive but they will find it allot harder to get into your desk at work.

Note: Store your wallet.dat file and pass-phrase separately. So that if someone gets hold of one they still wont be able to get your PTS without the other.

Importantly: you should refresh this backup of your wallet.dat file at least every 99 transactions. You need to do this because the wallet starts out with a pool of 100 key pairs that are used for transactions that require new key pairs. Once you have used up the 100 key pairs your wallet can create new key pairs when syncing with the network. This new wallet with refreshed key pairs should then be saved. IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS YOU CAN LOSE PTS!

How do I restore my PTS wallet from a backup?

If you need to gain access to your PTS do the following:• Install the client • copy your wallet.dat back into the .protoshares folder (replacing the wallet.dat file that will be there)• Sync with the network and you should see your transactions and balance.

Note: Only keep your wallet.dat file in your .protoshares folder when you want to have access to your PTS. Otherwise keep it offline for safety.

How will I claim BitShares (BTS) using PTS?

Invictus is developing a user friendly software where you would simply download the BitShares client and then point it at your PTS wallet.dat file to collect your BTS.

After collecting my BTS what do I do with my PTS?

I would advise you keep them! PTS has value because it functions as a social contract. May more DACs may come and honour the social contract, thus you are earning a stake in a new industry of DACs.

Note: Compare this to being able to buy a piece of every future internet based company when the internet just started out.

More answers will be added to this FAQ as information come to light. If you feel something needs to be added, comment and let me know.

I have merged MrJeans's FAQ into the OP. Barwizi and I ought to clean it up a little bit IMO. Everyone else can post suggested edits or additional info as comments.

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Do not use this post as information for making any important decisions. The only agreements I ever make are informal and non-binding. Take the same precautions as when dealing with a compromised account, scammer, sockpuppet, etc.

Decentralized-autonomous-corporation (DAC): a general term used to describe an unmanned company whose shares are the crypto-currency and the value of those shares are backed up by the service the company provides. Bitcoins can be said to be the shares of the company ‘Bitcoin, DAC’ where the value of a bitcoin is backed up by the value of the service Bitcoin provides (fast, cheap, global, unregulated transactions of value). For more info http://invictus-innovations.com/i-dac/

BitShares (BTS): a general term referring to a crypto-equity based company, a DAC.

BitShares Bank and Exchange (BEX): The specific name of a DAC Invictus-Innovations plans to launch. (BitShares BEX was previously called BitShares, the renaming is part of a branding stratergy).

FAQ related to BitShares BEX are displayed below:

What is BitShares BEX?

BEX is a DAC which provides the services of storing value (like a traditional bank) and creates a speculative market (like that of forex and CFD markets).BEX creates financial instruments that represent real world representations of value such as USD, gold, oil etc. The financial instruments will exist in the form of bitUSD, bitGold, bitOil etc.

Users will be able to hold assets such as bitUSD in the BEX bank and thus use BEX as a savings vehicle, or a vehicle to ‘buy long’ on an asset (savers will earn a 5% interest on their value per year).

Users will also be able to speculate on the value of bitAssets by ‘buying long’ or ‘short selling’ the assets. Short sellers will pay a 5% fee on the amount they are shorting.

How are these bitAssets (such as bitUSD) created?

Lets say Stacy believes the value of USD is going to drop and wishes to short sell bitUSD. She will need to put down collateral in order to burrow bitUSD (which are lent into existence). BEX shares are used as collateral. Once Stacy has burrowed some bitUSD she can sell it to another user, lets say Ben.

In this way bitUSD were lent into existence by BitShares BEX using Stacy’s collateral. And Ben could now purchase bitUSD and use them to store his value, speculate on USD value, save the money for a rainy day etc.

Why would someone short bitUSD?

Sticking with the example used above: Stacy has shorted bitUSD hoping that it will go down in value and she will be able to buy it back from Ben at a cheaper price.

If the price of USD drops, Ben may decide he no longer wants to own bitUSD and may sell it back to Stay at the lower price.

Stacy can then return the bitUSD she lent from BitShares BEX. She can return the bitUSD at a lower price than she bought it and can pocket the difference!

When Stacy returns the bitUSD to BitShares BEX the bitUSD is destroyed removing it from existence.

How will the value of bitUSD track the value of real world USD?The price of bitUSD is pegged to the price of USD by the same principles that peg a prediction market. A number of people will take long and short positions on bitUSD until a consensus is reached and spread is reduced to around the value that the market believes bitUSD should be priced at.

It simply wouldn’t make sense to buy bitUSD for 5USD. And it wouldn’t make sense to short bitUSD at a value too low under USD. As people continue to take up positions the market will price bitUSD at a the price they believe it is worth.Remember bitUSD pays a 5% interest (and USD does not)!

Sounds good, how do I obtain some BEX?When BEX launches you should be able to purchase shares through crypto-currency exchanges but by then the price of a single share may be very high.

To get in on the ground level you can purchase Protoshares (PTS). PTS holders will be rewarded by Invictus-Innovations with 1 BEX share for each PTS the hold. See Protoshares FAQ above.

Why are we doing this/how is Bitshares BEX good for society?It will provide an alternative banking and trading platform that is extremely cheap for users. Millions of people who could previously not afford banking services can now hold their value in stable, virtual asset classes (Bitcoin volatility makes it an unattractive store of value for more conservative users).

BEX allows for the creation of virtual assets (e.g bitUSD) which can be transferred quickly, globally and cheaply (like bitcoin). bitUSD will hold a relatively stable value as its value will be pegged to USD, thus resolving issues around price volatility in the cryptocurrency space.

Holders of bitAssets receive a 5% interest on their holding (the interest comes from persons who are shorting the asset and paying fees to do so).

Many banks claim this but BEX will be the first bank that was created by the people, for the people.

Store your backups in multiple off-line, off-computer locations. You can store it on flash drives and cds which can be stored at different locations (such as home and work).

Once you have backed up your wallet. You can delete the wallet.dat file found in the .protoshares folder. This will remove your wallet from your computer making your wallet less vulnerable to hackers. Hackers may be able to get into your hard drive but they will find it allot harder to get into your desk at work.

Note: Store your wallet.dat file and pass-phrase separately. So that if someone gets hold of one they still wont be able to get your PTS without the other.

Importantly: you should refresh this backup of your wallet.dat file at least every 99 transactions. You need to do this because the wallet starts out with a pool of 100 key pairs that are used for transactions that require new key pairs. Once you have used up the 100 key pairs your wallet can create new key pairs when syncing with the network. This new wallet with refreshed key pairs should then be saved. IF YOU DO NOT DO THIS YOU CAN LOSE PTS!

Great work here. We're getting content over to the web guys this week for our new website and I'd love to use this FAQ. Can you all let me know what else you think may need to go on it? What are some of the most basic questions people will ask when first getting started that we should include? Can you remember some of the first questions you asked? Questions like: What is a DAC? How is BitShares different than Bitcoin? What is Keyhotee? I love what's here, I'd just like to expand upon it.